Kangaroo cull to start Wednesday

davo101 said :

IrishPete said :

Having to cull the same reserves year after year suggests something isn’t working.

Come on, surely your parents gave you the “talk”? When daddy skippy likes mummy skippy a lot the result is lots of little hoppers. In some cases lots and lots, the population on the Lawson site grew by 75% in one year from breeding.

Not “lots of little hoppers” but just one at a time.

For the population to grow 75% in a year suggests inward migration. Mummy and daddy producing one roo-let is an increase of 50%. If mummy has two per year that’s 100%. Assuming 100% survival of roo-lets, i.e. no infant mortality, and no predation. And no old roos dying either. And no outward migration of young males being evicted away by daddy who doesn’t want to pay university fees.

They actually don’t breed like rabbits which have litters and breed multiple times per year.

Until you can stop inward migration, the cull is potentially pointless.

davo101 said :

IrishPete said :

Having to cull the same reserves year after year suggests something isn’t working.

Come on, surely your parents gave you the “talk”? When daddy skippy likes mummy skippy a lot the result is lots of little hoppers.

Ha. Nice one.

IrishPete said :

Having to cull the same reserves year after year suggests something isn’t working.

Come on, surely your parents gave you the “talk”? When daddy skippy likes mummy skippy a lot the result is lots of little hoppers. In some cases lots and lots, the population on the Lawson site grew by 75% in one year from breeding.

I see the local nutjobs have succeeded in wasting more time and money again. http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/canberra-kangaroo-cull-remains-on-hold-20140520-zrip1.html

When they lose (again) I hope they are forced to pay costs of court, government lawyers fees and the wages of everyone concerned in this.

They should also have to pay $340 per kangaroo that is culled. If it wasn’t for their interference in the methodology it could be done quickly and cleanly in one afternoon at a total cost of around $500

crappicker said :

Shane Rattenbury’s political maneuvering on maintaining kangaroo populations in ACT nature reserves is disappointing. Alternatives to culling are pulled out of the bag just at politically sensitive times: a kangaroo relocation trial was announced just before last year’s federal election but was not pursued thereafter; a kangaroo fertility trial is announced just when the reserves are being closed for the next cull. As an incoming minister Shane Rattenbury now has had close to two years to properly instigate alternatives to drive-by-night shootings and joey bashings and beheadings. Making phony announcements just at politically sensitive times is not fair dinkum. I had expected better from a Greens minister. Shame on you Shane.

And it remains unproven (at least some experts think so, probably more than think it is proven) that the cull is necessary, nor that it has the slightest impact. Having to cull the same reserves year after year suggests something isn’t working.

Shane Rattenbury’s political maneuvering on maintaining kangaroo populations in ACT nature reserves is disappointing. Alternatives to culling are pulled out of the bag just at politically sensitive times: a kangaroo relocation trial was announced just before last year’s federal election but was not pursued thereafter; a kangaroo fertility trial is announced just when the reserves are being closed for the next cull. As an incoming minister Shane Rattenbury now has had close to two years to properly instigate alternatives to drive-by-night shootings and joey bashings and beheadings. Making phony announcements just at politically sensitive times is not fair dinkum. I had expected better from a Greens minister. Shame on you Shane.

The 2013 cull was reported to have cost about $180 per adult roo http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-11-15/controversial-roo-cull-cost-act-270000/5095716

Noticeable that they haven’t released detailed numbers from the annual counts, or the “target” number for each reserve. Probably because previous years’ count numbers have shown biologically impossible recovery rates. That means the kangaroos have to be moving in from elsewhere. If you can’t stop them moving in, it’s like trying to empty the sea with a teaspoon. Until the population across the ACT is hugely reduced, there’ll be no long-term effect on the number of roos in those reserves.

Now you may think that’s a good thing, but the point is that is NOT what the ACT Government is saying. Likely they are just wasting your money.

After several years of culling there has still been no evaluation, yet the contraception trial won’t go ahead without rigorous evaluation. Why should it be evaluated when the cull isn’t?

Given roo meat is around $15-20 per kilo, That means they only need 17 kgs of Roo meat per roo to turn a profit per roo… Thats not counting the bits of roo they use in dog food and meat pies!

If you read carefully, the $255.00 cost of the fertility treatment “covers the drugs only”. No mention of the cost of mustering, corralling, tranquilizing, treating, etc.

I think this so called cost saving is all smoke and mirrors, courtesy of Aphadog.

Who shoots them? Is there a local rifle club that goes on a hunt or do they send in the army or what? And more importantly, will roo meat be on sale at IGA next week?
(I’ve moved here from the city, didn’t know they did this!)